Wednesday, March 8, 2017

The ForcedOne day when you are pissing on the roadside,your cracked bare feet on grass streaked with fecesand porewater plastic bags, you will hear his nameand turn to watch his convoy, numerous as the aunts,the uncles and ancestors you have never known, inchdown the crowded Mushin street singing his praisesas if a capitalist black Jesus, dishing cold hand cashto those pressed either side of his jeep, hands out —stretched, pleading with a hunger you know too well.One month later, when another born-troway smokingstolen Indian hemp talks softly of the crude oil ragsand patchwork dishcloths you both wore as nappies,shivers from the same foul breeze blowing the truthof your fractured life, you will call his name, Oluomo,speak its solid weight and wonder if it is worth a try.One year after your quick slim fingers have caughtthe attention of his boys who dance drunk on paraga,the oil drum fire flickering in their eyes, you will hearthey too were born and thrown away, they had snakesfor mothers too, but were lifted from gutters and noware this citywide tribe of hard men spidering throughthe night Oluomo alone controls: homes raided, rivalsknifed, politicians bribed, the rich ransomed and eacharea-boy willing to die for each. You marvel at suchfamily, ask if they need help, anything you will do.One decade from now, when police who are viciousas they are duplicitous have beaten you senseless,have dumped your swollen self in a concrete cell,when you deny them the satisfaction of betrayal/ no be by force o, no be by force / you will cryyour throat dry as cracked feet, sob uncontrollablyas blood bubbling your torn nostril bursts, you willcall for your brothers, but for now you are free.——————————INUA ELLAMSThe Wire-Headed HeathenAkashic Books 2015Inua Ellams was born in Nigeria in 1984.He now lives in London and works as a poet,playwright, performer and graphic artist.

A poem (or more) will be offered by the hour or with the day and at the very least once a week. So stay on your webbed toes. The aim is to share good hearty-to-eat poetry. This is a birdhouse size file from the larger Longhouse which has been publishing from backwoods Vermont since 1971 books, hundreds of foldout booklets, postcards, sheafs, CD, landscape art, street readings, web publication, and notes left for the milkman. Established by Bob & Susan Arnold for your pleasure.The poems, essays, films & photographs on this site are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without the author's go-ahead.

Lunatic Drawings by Bob Arnold

Link to the Lunatic Drawings PDF for a free preview

The Woodcutter Talks by Bob Arnold

Available from Longhouse. Please link on the image for ordering information. Drawing from years of poetry and also new poems, The Woodcutter Talks is Bob Arnold at his finest branching love poems with back country work poems and settlement with community, family and individual portraits. The extensive collection also showcases vintage photographs from woodcutters and woodchoppers and big-saw-pullers of old. Sweat runs down the cheeks of the mere literary and they adore one another.

Stone Hut by Bob Arnold

"Once again, my friends, this is your best book! Exquisite in design, fat enough to be a feast, pretty enough to just wade around in, but deep enough to dive into and stay with, all I can say is WOW, you guys really did it – it’s the first of its kind, a scrapbook novel that is also a how-to and a mystery -- how did he do it, and how does he make rocks balance like Thor? — Gerald Hausman" ~

Link to this review of "Stone Hut" by Bob Arnold

Museum, by Bob Arnold ~ new from Longhouse

Museum, An Unlikely Meditation, written by the poet Bob Arnold, is as much an unlikely novel. Visit this page for details.

Cid Corman's Of, Volumes 4 & 5 from Longhouse.

ANNOUNCING. The final volumes to Corman's opus in one book ~ of, volumes 4 & by Cid Corman. 1500 poems, 850 pages edited by Bob Arnold, now available in a limited edition from Longhouse, 2015. Please link on the cover image for details & Paypal payment information ~

Walking Woman with the Tambourine is the final book of poems by Janine Pommy Vega.

"Walking Woman with the Tambourine is the final book of poems by Janine Pommy Vega. The author completed the manuscript and left it as she wished with her executor Bob Arnold … New and available now from Longhouse ~ Poetry. 144 pages. Perfect bound softcover. Please link on the image for ordering information

John Bradley's "And Thereby Everything"

L O N G H O U S E is very proud to announce a new book by John Bradley in their on going series of S C O U T book publications — other titles from the series have been by Kent Johnson, Janine Pommy Vega, James Koller, Bob Arnold and Lorine Niedecker with more in the works. An opening salvo at the front of the book by Patrick Lawler should provide ample cover for what the reader should come to expect. And Thereby Everything John Bradley Longhouse 2015 First edition only issued in softcover 208 pages, perfect bound illustrated throughout by Bob Arnold with 150 photographs

Dudley Laufman : Bull & More Bull

Visit this page for information on this new Longhouse by Dudley Kaufman (2016)

Dudley Laufman's Islandian Poems

The Islandian Poems & Fables Dudley Laufman Longhouse 2015. 72 pages, perfect bound. Please link on the image to purchase this new title from Longhouse.

MIRZA ABD AL-QADER BIDEL / ROBIN MAGOWAN ~

New from Longhouse. Please click on the image

New from Longouse ~ Robin Magowan

New from Longhouse. Robin Magowan. The Garden of Amazement, Scattered Gems After Sâeb. large softcover glossy bound with an introduction by the translator, 112 pages

Duo by Bob Arnold — New from Longhouse Please link to A Longhouse Birdhouse for more information

DUO Bird Poems by BOB ARNOLD. New and available now from Longhouse ~ 92 pages. Perfect bound softcover. Please link on the cover image for details & Paypal payment information PLUS more from Longhouse

Start With The Tree by Bob Arnold

New in 2015. Building a marriage, building a family, building a small barn out in the woodlands together as a family, as a marriage, and seeing the roof go on. Over 150 color photographs

Beautiful Days by Bob Arnold

Beautiful Days ~ new poems of living and working in the Vermont woodlands and to Hurricane Irene

Yokel by Bob Arnold

[from "Yokel, A Long Green Mountain Poem" by Bob Arnold] ~ that and more at Bob Arnold webpage of books & poems: Please link on this image for more

Go West by Bob Arnold

Filled with poems and travel photography — shares one cross-country trip the couple took in the mid-1980s to California from Vermont.

"I'm In Love With You Who Is In Love With Me" by Bob Arnold

from Bob Arnold's new book "I'm In Love With You Who Is In Love With Me" ~~~~~~~40 years of love poems

"Rain Bear" by Bob Arnold

Bob Arnold's first children's book "Rain Bear" New and available now from Longhouse ~ 50 pages. Perfect bound softcover with photographs ~ & drawings by Jason Clark